


Easy

by byesweetheart (ConstantComment)



Series: Countdown [17]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Boys Kissing, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, M/M, high school parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 20:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11997777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/byesweetheart
Summary: The boys attend a party just before the Spring Inter-highs start.





	Easy

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of my fic, [Team](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11740533), but part of a larger series!
> 
> A playlist for this series can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/bye_sweetheart/playlist/7BqcBvnylmDTG20FZxjTFv)!

The party, even though Tobio did doubt how it could happen in such a short amount of time—he’s never planned a party in his life so he assumed it must take a lot of time—works itself out mysteriously well. Friday afternoon classes are a little crazy and the set-up at Adimari's house is slapdash at best, since it rained an hour ago, literally dampening their plans to try out Adimari’s pool, and everyone rushes to grab snacks and extra friends on the way from school like they'd just heard it was happening today. But, people seem unfazed about it all. Tobio bought his two different brands of dip the day after his and Hinata’s double-date with Yachi and Tanaka, but he's starting to worry whether it's gone bad by now, considering he’s the only one who got stuff ahead of time.

"Do things go bad in three days?"

Hinata glances up at him in the aisle of the conbini close to the school campus. They're sharing the lane, between towering rows of chip bags and candy bars all in their noisy packaging, with a creepy older guy Tobio's pretty sure is drunk. It could be that Hinata doesn’t mind the stench, or that he is too preoccupied, too engrossed in studying the thousands of varieties of chips carefully with a finger tapping against his chin. "Things?" Hinata asks too absently to be making fun.

"Dip," Tobio supplies. "Does it go bad?"

Hinata snatches a bag of sour cream and chive potato chips and another of corn chips. "Did you open them?"

Tobio shakes his head, and when Hinata actually looks at him, shakes his head again.

"Then, no, you dummy," he says with a frown, and Tobio shrugs.

Hinata has asked stupider questions, and they still can barely spend ten minutes without each other even when they’re at their… stupidest… so Tobio doesn’t feel too embarrassed.

As of right now, with Hinata’s snack decision finally made, it’s five o'clock, and they'll get to the Adimari house within ten minutes according to Tanaka's instructions. He and Noya and a couple of the girls from the volleyball team are waiting outside in the street, purchases already made. Yachi keeps leaving Tanaka’s side to press her face to the conbini’s window like that will make Hinata less stubborn about picking the perfect chip flavor, but Hinata of course hasn’t noticed at all.

"Are you done?" Tobio asks, nodding toward Hinata's fists clenched in the crinkly metallic bags.

Hinata's eyes narrow. Tobio chews on his lip as his boyfriend tips his head to the side. "Are you nervous?" Hinata asks, instead of responding to him. They’re still standing in smelly drunk guy aisle and Hinata’s trying to ask soul-searching questions.

Tobio reaches for Hinata's arm and directs him toward the register by his elbow. "I'm fine," he grunts.

Hinata counts out his money for the cashier without pressing further, but he does take Tobio's hand as they push their way through the door and back onto the street where the others are waiting. Tobio’s always been told he only has one expression, but apparently Hinata can read him just fine.

He isn’t sure if this is an entirely good thing, but the stupid butterfly colony in his stomach seems to think it is.

One of the girls, Ito, coos at them when they join the group, and that’s when Tobio realizes that no, they haven’t told everyone. It’s like Tobio’s mistake at the team dinner a while back, just blurting out that they’re dating, except it’s different when you’re holding hands in front of people you rarely talk to—even make eye contact with—on a regular basis. Tobio feels Hinata's fingers twitch in his hand, but... Tobio decides to squeeze them tighter as the others chuckle good-naturedly.

"All set?" Noya asks and grins a little conspiratorially at the tall girl to his left before leading them west toward a row of houses that seems to grow larger and more strangely proportioned the farther they walk.

"You don't have to be nervous," Tobio mutters once the group chatter bubbles louder and everyone's attention scatters. He looks down at their fingers laced together, Hinata's smaller, warm hand in his. He agrees with Ito’s sentiment, agrees with the butterflies even. They're cute, and it's dumb. Tobio's still getting used to being a complete loser about it. Thankfully with volleyball, he hasn’t had a lot of time to contemplate just how much of a loser he’s become. But, maybe getting used to it just doesn’t ever happen.

"I was supposed to say that to you!" Hinata retorts, and Tobio lets him pretend he didn’t have that split-second of doubt when they forgot themselves in front of new people. They’re safe, so it’s okay. "You don't do parties very often, do you?"

Tobio shrugs again, and is reminded of Hinata ages ago at New Year’s, with his bowtie and pink cocktail, shrugging coyly in his front hall when all this… stuff… started. How confident he was. He wonders if there will be alcohol at Adimari’s, and what that'll do to their self-control tonight. Hinata tugs lightly on his arm, and then hops into the air in a split-second to catch Tobio's jaw with a kiss.

Tobio is nervous for the party, sure, but... since the other night with Hinata, he's been nervous about something else, too.

He remembers blinking his eyes open to his dim room, hearing Hinata’s quiet breaths as he shuffled around in the dark before spotting him beside the bed. He remembers stretching his arms out as his face fell into a disgruntled, confused frown when he registered the _zip!_ of Hinata’s backpack. He must’ve fallen asleep, because the last thing he remembered was a hand in his hair… or—there was a warm washcloth at some point, but he’s not sure what came first.

“Shou,” he had grunted, nearly lifting himself up until the light shock of wet openness, sweet soreness, between his still bare thighs sent him back into the sheets. The sensation reminded him even more strongly of their closeness in the last several hours, the last weeks.

“Hey,” Hinata had whispered, “Tired-yama.”

“Where’re you going?”

“Home, you dummy,” Hinata had said.

“That’s a stupid idea,” Tobio had reasoned, and felt the warmth of Hinata’s soft laugh.

“I know, but I gotta!”

“ _No._ ”

Hinata had gone a little quiet then, and stepped closer as if he really was considering staying over on a school night. Their parents would be mad, but that was a problem for later.

“One more kiss?” Tobio had asked, or demanded, who really knew, but Hinata had groaned and lifted himself back into bed, sliding perfectly against Tobio’s body until they were mirroring each other through the barrier of the thin sheets. “Don’t want you to go,” he’d grumped, in a moment of sleepy weakness, and Hinata’s breath had caught.

“ _Tobio,_ ” Hinata had agreed, and then he’d bumped his nose against Tobio’s and softly kissed his lips.

Tobio remembers all of it, and thinks about what it means. He’d thought of asking his mom about it. About what... it... feels like. How that feeling _past_ liking grows behind his ribs and pushes outward. It feels big and unmanageable and Tobio still feels the same way he did under Hinata the other night whenever he thinks about it. He wonders if it's what they did, or if what they did just made it plain to see. But, it had felt too big in his chest to even open his mouth when he’d washed dishes with his mom on Thursday night. It felt too big to give a name to. She had let him load the dishwasher in silence, as he was starting to realize she did on purpose, and when he’d wandered off to his room to think some more, she’d just kissed his hair and patted him on the cheek.

“What are you thinking about?”

Tobio looks down at Hinata, who is wearing another sly smile. He swings his bag from the conbini in his other hand, almost cheeky, as they walk at the back of the group and turn toward a house with large square windows that allow you to see right through to the other side. Everything is lit so nicely in the big living room they can see, and looks like it popped right out of one of those fancy magazines Tobio’s aunt likes to read.

Hinata hits him with his bag. Tobio can’t stop his cheeks from reddening anymore than he can stop the sun from sinking toward the horizon as it’s doing currently, framing Hinata in more stupidly perfect pink light that’s bouncing off of the shiny glass of the house in front of them. How does this always happen? Why does his mind suddenly go straight to _my boyfriend’s hair is like the sunset_ whenever he looks at him? Tobio bites his lip before answering, “I’m not thinking about anything,” but Hinata’s smile grows and grows, and Tobio knows that can’t be good.

“Liar, liar,” Hinata chants. He ignores the crowing of the rest of the group, who are all blown away by Adimari’s mansion—no one mentioned it was a mansion—but Tobio is more preoccupied with Hinata. Surprise. Hinata looks at him out of the corner of his eye before adding, “Wanna know what I’m thinking about?”

Tobio’s mouth falls open when Hinata’s eyes go dark and his smirk grows more… wicked. He tilts his head a little, looking at Tobio, or into him maybe, for a long moment before his eyes flicker down Tobio’s body.

“No thanks,” Tobio grunts, and deliberately looks away. He’ll look at this house like everyone else, he’ll look at the huge modern door they’re approaching, which opens to reveal Adimari wearing stupid sunglasses with those slits across them, like hip-hop artists wear, shouting his welcome as Tanihara appears behind him with a soda, Ueno with a Pocky stick in his mouth and the typical book dangling from his fingers. Tobio will look at their friends in front of them and will _not_ look at Hinata and will _not_ wonder what he’s thinking about, even though he has a… good idea.

Hinata squeezes Tobio’s hand again and repeats, quiet, “Liar, liar!”

Even though he tries desperately, Tobio can’t fight the smile from twisting his lips, and then forgets he’s _not looking at his boyfriend_ immediately. When Tobio glances down at him, he swallows.

Hinata lets him be, probably satisfied enough with his embarrassment for the moment, but that look doesn’t really leave his face even after they come through the door, and dump their snacks on the immense kitchen island, and everyone starts grabbing at drinks, and they discover that Tobio bought two of the same flavor of dip just in a different brand.

The look doesn’t leave his face until the whole team arrives, _including_ Daichi, Asahi and Suga, who all managed to make a trip down for the weekend (there’s lots of emotional hugging especially from Noya, because Tanaka completely forgot to inform him about their arrival), and _then_ they discover Adimari has a karaoke room. Well, Adimari actually announces it with relish while discussing what they’ll do instead of swimming, but everyone erupts in surprise just the same.

After that, Tobio somehow can’t stop looking at Hinata. Maybe not in the same, sneaky way that Hinata has been looking at him, but probably with just as much anticipation. Although, for _what_ , Tobio doesn’t really know yet. The anticipation is paired pretty strangely with that niggling, powerful something in his chest, which only gets harder to ignore as the night wears on and he watches everyone laugh and interact, and watches Hinata sing song after song—including one of the themes from Naruto, he thinks. Hinata runs over to him during his rendition and sits in his lap to sing tunelessly in his face to everyone’s shrieking amusement, nerves forgotten after two drinks, but before he leaps up again he delivers a laughing, off-kilter kiss to Tobio’s cheek, smelling sweetly of alcohol and syrupy soda. Tobio stays in his seat in the corner of the room from then on, more stunned by this slightly tipsy Hinata—who’s the _same_ as he was on New Year’s, the same with him, even in front of a crowd, even though at points he gets nervous and remembers himself—than he’d anticipated. He didn’t anticipate being surprised by Hinata, of all things that could go wrong or right at his first party. Hinata is brave, even when he’s scared.

Tobio sits, and sits through several songs where Hinata flits back and forth between him and his other friends, and then sits some more as Hinata and Yachi get up to duet a kind of provocative song, with some phrases even he can tell are vulgar although he can barely speak a word of English.

Apparently Yachi knows a lot of explicit rap? And Hinata at least knows the choruses.

Everyone laughs through a lot of it, but Tobio gets stuck on the swing of Hinata’s hips, the way his shoulders jump up to his ears when he giggles at Yachi spitting expletives into the microphone, the way he smiles and catches Tobio’s eye every now and then.

He loves that smile.

Tobio takes a deep shuddering breath in his corner of the giant leather couch that occupies most of the low-lit room. He looks down at his knees, dotted with moving lights in all colors, and decides he should just keep taking more breaths until whatever his body is doing stops.

“Hey, Kageyama,” a voice says, just barely loud enough to hear over the music.

Tobio looks up to see Daichi standing just to his left, holding two glasses of something in his muscular hands.

“Hey,” Tobio parrots. He rubs his palms on his thighs and tries to smile at his former captain. Although, he’s too nervous to pull it off apparently, because Daichi just raises his eyebrows at him and looks behind him at Asahi who’s sipping a melon soda.

“Asahi, can we switch drinks? I don’t think Kageyama needs alcohol right now,” Daichi says. Asahi takes one look at Tobio, whose face is stuck in that weird not-smile, and agrees.

“’Course,” he says with a shrug, and trades with Daichi amicably. They seem to exchange some unspoken words before Daichi turns back and hands Kageyama the soda.

“I was bringing you a drink, but I think this is probably better, right bud?” Daichi says as he sits down on the cushy sofa next to him, and takes a sip from his own glass. “You doing okay?”

Tobio blinks at him, and then takes a gulp of the soda. It tastes more like the color green than like actual melon. “Yeah, I think so,” he replies.

“You got a lot of stuff on your mind,” Daichi says. It isn’t a question, but Tobio nods.

“I guess. Suddenly,” Tobio says.

“Koushi’s been telling me a little about you and Hinata, just to be... I mean, obviously it’s okay with me, too. Thought I’d offer—” Daichi cuts himself off and takes a drink before patting Tobio’s shoulder. They’ve never been close, or very affectionate, but Tobio kind of doesn’t mind. “Sorry, speaking of drinking I’ve had a couple more than I needed,” he says instead of continuing whatever he was trying to say before, and then he takes another drink to punctuate it. “What I’m saying is, I think it’s great you and Hinata finally got together.”

Tobio looks at Daichi, at his earnest half-smile. He looks completely at ease. “Yeah, we… it’s been a while now, I guess. I remember Noya told you guys.”

“Koushi still has that picture of you on his phone,” Daichi laughs. “Are things getting serious?”

“…I think—when am I not serious?” Tobio asks, somewhat rhetorically.

Daichi nods with a grin. “That’s true,” he agrees. “He seems to really like you, not that that’s any different from before. You two have always sort of… gravitated toward each other.”

Tobio stares at Daichi until there’s a loud squawk as everyone spots Ueno bashfully taking the karaoke mic from a trio of girls. He nervously clings to it as a new song starts, and Tobio catches him shooting a terrified glance at Ennoshita, who’s very red-faced from his third beer and clapping even as he’s sandwiched between two girls on the couch.

“Oh,” Tobio nearly groans.

Daichi frowns at him and then looks in the direction of the light-haired first year, who’s quietly crooning along to the otherwise bouncy love song, lyrics plastered on the TV screen behind his tall, skinny silhouette. Ueno is taking turns looking at the floor and, now _so_ unsurprisingly, at their team captain. It’s a little painful to watch. Daichi traces his line of site, too, and then lets out a sympathetic hum.

“Poor kid,” Daichi mutters.

Thankfully, Ennoshita and at least _most_ of the people in the room are completely unaware. Most everyone is, if not drunk, then happily toeing the line. There are cheers when Ueno finishes, everyone clapping him on the back for bravely doing a song on his own, and Tobio and Daichi sigh a little when Ennoshita stumbles up to him, ruffles his hair and shouts praise into his blushing face.

Hinata somehow insinuates himself into the knot of people, just at the moment when Ueno’s eyes grow wider and his hand clutches at his chest while Ennoshita babbles and pats his head. Daichi and Tobio watch Hinata artfully pull Ueno away and brush a calming hand over his shoulder before handing him a big glass of water. Ueno looks grateful, and deflated. Even though Hinata’s tipsy, still smiling and laughing, he diverts Ueno’s attention like he does with Tobio when things get too overwhelming. Under his care, soon Ueno is smiling again. Tobio never mentioned Ueno’s questions weeks ago since they seemed inconsequential at the time, but Hinata seems to know enough to have read the situation quickly.

He glances back to Tobio again as he steers Ueno to his fellow first years on the other end of the couch, and lifts his eyebrows. Tobio shrugs helplessly, and Hinata smiles again before making sure the first years are doing okay.

Suga appears on the stairs and spots the Daichi and Tobio quickly, considering the sound of hiccoughing surprise he makes. He steps over Asahi’s and some of the girls’ legs to get to him and sit in Daichi’s lap. Which, Tobio supposes, confirms everything he keeps forgetting to just _ask_ about. Both of them seem to be firmly past tipsy, if their glassy eyes are any indication. Daichi’s arms wrap around his boyfriend’s waist easily, and they look so at ease with each other it feels like Tobio’s entered an alternate reality.

Of course there are other people like him and Hinata. _Of course._ But, it’s still a shock because they never did this sort of thing while in high school.

It’s both a shock and a relief, though, because Daichi and Suga… they’ve always been role models even when Tobio didn’t feel as close to them, before. They’re still his captains, his senpais.

Suga grins at him as he leans heavily into Daichi arms, and reaches out to ruffle Tobio’s hair.

“Kageyama! How’re you doing?”

Tobio smirks. “Not doing as good as you, probably,” he says.

“Kageyama’s been staring at his boyfriend,” Daichi admits, and Suga gasps happily.

Tobio nearly spills his soda, glares at Daichi. “Have not,” he grunts and flicks some soda off his fingers.

“You were kind of panicking, Kageyama,” Daichi says without much fight. “Are you worried about telling Hinata?”

Tobio is halfway to saying, “Telling him what?” but Suga gasps again.

“You haven’t told him yet?”

Tobio glances back to Hinata’s bright head of curls, and then to Daichi and Suga, who both look either pitying or compassionate. He’s not sure. He’s not sure if it’s just his brain making him feel like they think he’s being pathetic in his corner of the karaoke room instead of participating in the chaos. On second thought, that might be just what Tobio is thinking. He is being lame and non-participatory. He’s just...

“It’s okay,” Daichi says in a calming tone. He pinches Suga in his side, currently exposed by his striped shirt riding up a bit on his waist, and continues, “ _Some people_ forget how big a deal it can be to tell someone you love them for the first time.”

Tobio blinks a couple times. “I…” he begins, but nothing else comes out.

“Sorry, Kageyama,” Suga apologizes, and pats his head again. “It can seem scary but you gotta know that Hinata feels the same. He’s constantly gushing about you—”

“Constantly,” Daichi agrees.

“—and it’s obvious he cares about you so much!” Suga continues, covering up his boyfriend’s mouth. Daichi licks his hand and they tussle a little before Daichi settles the fight by kissing Suga’s neck.

Tobio would be amazed by this, if he weren’t so fixated on what they’ve just said.

They’re right. It shouldn’t be a big thing to say it. It shouldn’t. It should be fine. He can say it.

Tobio stands up.

“Uh oh,” Suga whispers, but it’s almost a yell.

It’s true; if he thinks about it any more he might just think himself right back around to being convinced he has no feelings at all, ever, because who knows that the hell feelings are when they’re jumbled up in your chest, stomach, give you shakes, make you nauseous. Even thinking about thinking about it makes Tobio think he might not ever get around to telling Hinata about any of these weird feelings. It should be fine, easy, to just walk up to Hinata and tell him, instead.

_Easy._

Tobio steps around the coffee table and walks up to Hinata who’s still chatting with Tanihara about something. He gets there so quickly that Hinata barely registers his presence until Ueno, still wallowing a little, glances over Hinata’s shoulder from the couch and Hinata turns his head slightly.

“OH!” Hinata yelps, and then starts giggling as he clutches his chest. “Hi, Tobio.”

“ _Tobio_ ,” Tanihara mouths to Ueno, whose mouth quirks a little at the corner.

“Hinata," Tobio replies.

Hinata raises his eyebrows and rubs one last time at his chest before crossing his arms, expectant. “ _Hi, Tobio,_ ” he repeats.

“Need to tell you something,” Tobio grunts, and then realizes he sounds like he’s about to start a fight. “Can we…” he begins, softer, “Can I talk to you?”

Hinata blinks, and then nods, brushing his hand over Tobio’s arm before walking past him to the stairway where no one is loitering or listening. “Are you okay? Sorry, I’ve had a couple drinks but you don’t have to worry, I stopped a little bit ago.”

Tobio shakes his head and his stomach swiftly ties itself in a knot, and then Tobio’s regretting ever getting up from the couch. This is not easy. How does he even know? He’s never done this before—he’s never felt this before, so how could he possibly—?

“Tobio—” Hinata gulps. “What’s wrong?”

“Hinata,” Tobio sounds out. “Shouyou, I-I lo- _luff_ —” He cuts himself off as a wave of mortification crawls up his back. He gapes down at Hinata, whose eyes are wide, a tiny bit glassy, still curious and concerned. Tobio takes a shuddering breath and sprints up the stairs, back into the hallway on the first floor. There’s a door at the back of Adimari’s house that leads to the fancy garden where the pool is. Tobio grabs at the sliding door with sticky fingers and it slams open as he runs into the cooler air outside.

“Tobio!! Kage- _yama!_ ” Hinata yells from behind him. Tobio stands on the patio and takes in a gulp of air. He’s so stupid. This was a terrible idea. He can’t even get the words out—the letters out—in the right order. “Kageyama,” Hinata gusts out as he catches up to him. Tobio hears him slide the door closed and pad over the stones softly. The patio is damp from the rain earlier in the afternoon, and Hinata’s socks are definitely gonna get wet if he stands here longer, watching Tobio freak out.

Tobio can’t bring himself to say anything.

“Hey,” Hinata murmurs eventually. His little fingers grasp at Tobio’s wrist and stroke down it until he can grab his hand. “Try it again, okay?”

Tobio closes his eyes and drops his head back with a silent groan.

Hinata tugs on his arm rhythmically until he finally looks down at him.

“Try again?” he asks, face rosy and eyes so wide they look like tennis balls. “But… only if you’re ready.”

Tobio swallows and turns to him, hangs his head a little as Hinata grabs his other hand. He takes a deep breath.

“I think I love you,” he mumbles, and then flicks his eyes up to Hinata, who looks like he might vibrate out of his skin. “I love you,” he decides finally, and his stomach cramps as the words leave him and float in the air between them.

Hinata stares at him for a moment, but his mouth slowly curls into the happiest, wobbliest smile Tobio’s ever seen. And his eyes are suddenly spilling over with tears.

“ _Tobio_ ,” he chokes out, and shuffles into Tobio’s space, burrowing into his chest and squeezing him so tight Tobio debates if he’ll pass out from mortification or oxygen deprivation first. He can feel dampness against his chest, through his school shirt. He can feel Hinata’s hitching breaths. He can feel his heart battering against his ribcage.

Hinata wails something into his shirt, but for the life of him Tobio can’t unscramble what he’s heard into actual words.

“Shouyou?” he asks. He grasps at Hinata’s arms gingerly, frowns down at the top of his fluffy head.

Hinata unburies himself only to nearly shout, “Me too!” right in Tobio’s face.

Tobio blinks down at him, watches another tear slide down one round cheek. Somehow, the crazy feeling behind his sternum, the hot-poker and the butterflies and the ballooning pressure, doesn’t lessen as he looks at him. It’s not like he expected it all to go away, but… the feeling is still terrifying.

Except, it’s warm now. He’s fit to burst with fizzing _warmth_.

Tobio leans down and presses his face to Hinata’s, doesn’t even aim for anything, not even to kiss his lips. He just presses his nose into Hinata's round, wet cheek and wraps his arms around his shoulders tightly.

“Me too,” Hinata mumbles again, lips moving against his chin. He nudges Tobio with his own nose, accompanies it with a small noise, and kisses his cheek painfully slow. “I love you so much.”

Tobio feels a whine bubble up from his throat and turns to catch Hinata’s mouth. Presses against him fiercely. Nibbles on his plush lips and wants badly to never stop.

“I love you,” Hinata giggles when their lips part, a bit of spit trailing between them for a second. They both make a similar face at each other, scrunching up their noses when the spit breaks, and then Tobio tries again:

“ _I love you,_ ” he murmurs, and maybe he tries it a couple more times but he’s feeling a little far from himself at the moment. When his nerves catch up with his mouth, as he expected they would eventually, he settles instead on saying Hinata’s name—Shouyou—instead of that big, heavy, _simple_ phrase.

...At this point it might mean the same thing, though.

“Tobio,” Hinata whispers after a while, and it really does feel exactly like ‘I love you’ when he says his name like that. “I—I literally can’t think of anything else to say, what is—is this what it’s like?”

A short laugh escapes from Tobio’s mouth, and he shakes his head. “No idea.”

“Oh,” Hinata croons with a small grin and reaches up to brush under Tobio’s eye with a thumb. Tobio realizes suddenly Hinata's catching his tears. “We’re both a mess. And you didn’t even drink, did you?”

Tobio shakes his head again. “I was a mess when we got here,” he admits.

“Oh, oh gosh,” Hinata says. He lifts up on his tiptoes and peppers Tobio’s mouth with kisses. “You’re so sweet, Kageyama, where did that come from?”

Tobio blushes, and can’t even bring himself to grump at Hinata. He just leans down so Hinata can reach better. “I think it came from you,” he says after soaking up the tiny kisses Hinata keeps attacking him with.

“ _Bwaaaaaaah!_ ” Hinata crows. “I love y—oh no, I’ll never be able to stop saying it!”

Tobio shrugs. “Don’t,” he mumbles, and inwardly cringes because that almost feels more vulnerable asking for the words than saying them himself.

Hinata presses his palms up into Tobio’s hair and looks at him—into him—again. “I love you,” he says firmly. “And I wanna take you home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, my dears. I did struggle to get back into a flow with this one, since I haven't been able to write for a couple weeks. I hope I did this important scene—really the whole point of the series for me—justice in your eyes, because I'm still disappointed in it from my perspective. :-/ Again, thank you for all the love you give this story. It's been really, really special.
> 
> I think two more after this, and then Countdown comes to a close!
> 
> Leave a comment below and/or come say hello on [Tumblr](http://byesweetheart.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/byesweetheart_)!


End file.
